I came
voluntarily from the Dáil in Dublin to Antrim PSNI barracks last Wednesday
having contacted the PSNI two months ago through my solicitor Seamus Collins,
to tell them that I was available to meet them following yet another spate of
media speculation, part of a sustained malicious, untruthful and sinister
campaign alleging involvement by me in the killing of Mrs Jean McConville.

When the PSNI
contacted my solicitor on Monday afternoon I was concerned about the timing,
given that Sinn Féin is involved in very important EU and local government
elections across the island of Ireland.

But I quickly
made arrangements to come here and I left Leinster House – the Oireachtas – and
Leaders Questions with the Taoiseach to do so.

I want to thank
my solicitor Mr. Seamus Collins for his diligence and professional approach and
his colleague Eugene McKenna.

I also want to thank
everyone who has sent goodwill messages to Colette and our family and to my
comrades in Sinn Féin for their solidarity.

Tá mé fíor
bhuíoch daoibhse uilig.

I am conscious
that there is another family at the heart of this. That is the family of Mrs
Jean McConville.

Let me be very
clear. I am innocent of any involvement in any conspiracy to abduct, kill and
bury Mrs McConville.

I have worked
hard with others to have this injustice redressed and for the return of the
bodies of others killed and secretly buried by the IRA and I will continue to
do so.

The Commission
set up by the two governments at the request of myself, and the late Fr Alex
Reid, has said that it is receiving 100% support from republicans.

Martin McGuinness
and I were actually to meet the Commission around this time as part of this
work.

I am mindful also
that tomorrow is the anniversary of the death on hunger strike of H Block
martyr Bobby Sands MP.

Sitting in my
cell here in recent days I reflected on that and on the dreadful summer of 1981.

Of course this is
not 1981 or 1972.

The people of
this island – with a few exceptions, have carved out a new dispensation.

So while the past
needs to be dealt with – and Sinn Féin is up for doing this – including the
issue of victims and their families, there can be no going back.

Peace needs to be
built with determination and a consistent focus.

That remains my
intention and is Sinn Féin’s constant endeavour.

I bear no
animosity to anyone. I have no wish to be treated differently from anyone else.

I am an activist
– this is my live and I am philosophical and I understand that I have
detractors and opponents.

I especially
understand that there are sinister elements, who are against the changes Sinn
Féin and others are committed to achieving.

I did not come
here expecting special treatment but it is crucial that everyone is treated
fairly. I seek fair treatment not only for myself but because it is crucially
important that everyone knows that these are changed times, that they can and
will be treated fairly and that we can all have hope and confidence in the new
developing dispensation, including the police service.

To send any other
signal is to encourage the bigots.

So I make the case
that those who authorised my arrest and detention could have done it
differently.

They had
discretion.

They did not have
to use pernicious coercive legislation to deal with a legacy issue – even one
as serious as this, which I was voluntarily prepared to deal with.

They did not have
to do this in the middle of an election campaign.

Remember I
contacted them two months ago.

Despite this I
want to make it clear that I support the PSNI.

I will continue
to work with others to build a genuinely civic policing service.

The old guard
which is against change whether in the PSNI leadership, within unionism or the
far fringes of republicanism, or the Dark Side of the British system cannot be
allowed to deny any of the people – Protestant, Catholic or Dissenter – from
our entitlement to a rights-based, citizen-centred society as set out in the
Good Friday Agreement.

I am an Irish
republican.

I want to live in
a peaceful Ireland based on equality.

I have never
disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will but I am glad that I, and
others, have created a peaceful and democratic way forward for everyone.

The IRA is gone.

During my
interrogations much was made by my interrogators about my time in the Civil
Rights struggle in the 1960s, my arrest and detention in Palace Barracks, in
Long Kesh and in the peace talks in 1972.

Newspaper
articles, photographs of Martin McGuinness and I at Republican funerals, books
and other open source material were used as the basis of the accusations made
against me.

Much of the
interrogations concerned the so-called Belfast Project conceived by Paul Bew,
University lecturer and a former advisor to former Unionist leader David
Trimble, and run by Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre as part of Boston College.

Both Moloney and
McIntyre are opponents of the Sinn Féin leadership and our peace strategy and
have interviewed former republicans who are also hostile to me and other Sinn
Féin leaders.

These former
republicans have accused us of betrayal and sell-out and have said we should be
shot because of our support for the Good Friday Agreement and policing.

The allegation of
conspiracy in the killing of Mrs McConville is based almost exclusively on
hearsay from unnamed alleged Boston College interviewees but mainly from
Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes.

Other anonymous
alleged Belfast Project interviewees were identified only by a letter of the
alphabet, eg interview R or Y.

One of these is
claimed by the PSNI to be Ivor Bell although the interrogators told me he has
denied the allegations.

I rejected all
the allegations made about me in the Boston Tapes.

Finally, let me
be clear. There is only one way for our society to go and that is forward.

Yes deal with the
past. Yes deal with victims but the focus needs to be on the future.

That is the road
we are on. There will be bumps in that road. There will be diversions.

Obstacles will be
erected.

We know that.

I thank everyone
for their support.

I extend sympathy
to the McConville family and all those who have suffered especially at the
hands of republicans.

My resolve
remains as strong as ever. It is to build the peace and see off the sinister
forces, who are against equality and justice for everyone. ENDS/CRÍOCH